Women in leadership has become an increasingly popular area of research within the field of Educational Leadership and Management. As women hold more leadership roles and responsibilities in education it is increasingly important this subject is researched to enrich our understanding and knowledge of an area in which there have been silences. This research is a case study of a woman school leader in Namibia. The purpose was to explore the language she used and the impact of the discourses emerging from the text. The discourses are explained, described and interpreted through a critical discourse analysis to examine the discursive space and its relationship to the organisation. A feminist post-structural framework provided the basis for the critical orientation of this research. The findings of this study indicate that the leader occupied a discursive space of multiple positions that perpetuated and reproduced the school’s organizational structure and culture. The significance of this study lies in the possibilities for future research. The use of a poststructural framework to critically analyze discourses, combined with the use of leadership and management theory provided a means by which to explore and understand the multiple positions a woman leader takes up. By analyzing the discursive space in a discourse researchers are able to explore new ways of examining women and leadership in education.

The problem with which this study is concerned is that of the gross under representation of females in educational administrative positions. Answers to the following questions were sought. (1) What are the reasons there are not more female administrators in education? (2) What are the reasons that more female educators do not aspire to become administrators? (3) What are effective means by which capable female educators can be encouraged to qualify themselves for positions in educational administration? Findings showed that the participants perceived that administrators are drawn from a predominantly male candidate pool and that women are not encouraged to compete for administrative jobs by their school district administrators. Most effective means for encouraging women to become administrators were encouragement by various people who have personal contact with the teacher, provision of role models, awareness of opportunities through on-the-job work, appointment of women to legitimate rather than token administrative positions, provision of financial encouragement, and administrative internship programs. Conclusions included (1) Women teachers do not perceive that women have chosen administration as a career field to the extent that men have. (2) Women teachers do not perceive women as lacking in ability to become administrators. (3) People who have personal contact with a woman teacher can greatly influence her. (4) Most of the reasons given why women are not and do not aspire to be administrators were not determined to be of great impact when considered individually in this study.

This research study was carried out in order to gain an understanding of the experiences of women primary school heads, their perceptions of their roles as leaders, the challenges they face and how they dealt with them. The study focused on the lived experiences of five women in Zimbabwe's primary schools. Literature relating to the issues and experiences of women in educational leadership within school contexts and the conceptual framework is examined. The importance of leadership has been emphasised in the literature of school effectiveness. Leadership theories tended to emphasise measurability and effectiveness of leadership, oversimplifying the complexity of leadership phenomenon. These features reflect research approach adopted by researchers from a positivist orientation. This study is an in-depth qualitative study conducted along the lines suggested by a phenomenological-interpretivist design with emphasis on rich contextual detail, close attention to individual's lived experience and the bracketing of pre-conceived notions of the phenomenon. Views and experiences based on the participants' perspectives are described through in-depth interviews which were dialogical in nature. Through this approach, I managed to grasp the essences of the lived experiences of women The research highlights the women's perceptions of themselves as educational leaders. What emerges is the variety of approaches to handling challenges. My findings show a rich and diverse culture of creativity in the way participants adopted a problem-solving strategy, which is not reflected in the mainstream leadership. Though educational leadership emerges as a complex phenomenon, with alternative approaches to educational research, there is high potential for increased understanding of woman's leadership, its importance and implications for school. / KMBT_363 / Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in

The first purpose of this study was to determine from the positive and negative factors identified by Jones and Montenegro (1982), which factors Oregon female administrators perceived had influenced upward mobility in their careers. Study of this topic reveals added information and direction to administrators of university administrative programs, school board members and school personnel administrators involved in hiring and providing training or staff development. As a result, the commonalities and differences among female school administrators in Oregon are identified. Identifying the factors that relate to upward mobility of tenured and nontenured female administrators provides insight and hopefully will promote further investigation. A second purpose of the study was to provide, from the demographic data concerning upward career mobility of nontenured and tenured female administrators, a profile that identifies those practices which have proven to be effective when considering career decisions in school administration. Descriptive statistics were used to quantify the data recovered from a research instrument given to 218 female administrators and of the tests resulted in a written description of the similarities and/or differences between the tenured administrators' and the nontenured administrators' perception of the factors that influenced their upward career mobility. Additionally, the demographic data were analyzed, and profiles of the two groups were developed, again to show similarities and/or differences. The conclusions of the study supported the research hypotheses that: (1) there is no difference between the perception of identified positive and negative factors to upward career mobility between nontenured and tenured female school administrators, and; (2) there is no difference in the profile of the nontenured and the tenured female school administrator in Oregon. A synthesis of the conclusions was made from the analysis of positive and negative career factors as well as the profiles of Oregon women school administrators which basically stated that the group of nontenured administrators is much like the group of practicing tenured administrators. Recommendations were made to women aspiring to be administrators for the application of the conclusions and study of identified characteristics or elements of positive and negative factors which lead to upward mobility. Profiles of the administrators were also made for use in self assessment for both groups of female administrators. Suggestions for additional study were made based upon the findings and experience in conducting the study. Similar study or replication of the study is encouraged in order to provide further insight into the reasons for more women not achieving administrative positions, especially that of principal.

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The problem of this study is an investigation of the effects, if any, of the professional support systems for the careers of women educators. This research should contribute to an understanding of the interaction among women and the impact of such interaction, if any, on career achievement. Women who want to become administrators can utilize this new information concerning support systems. By understanding the role of mentors and the interaction of a network, women as mentors may gain some valuable information with which to prepare themselves for a career in administration. The researcher leaned upon the Glaser and Strauss book, The Discovery of Grounded Theory as a methodological basis of this study. Generating theory and making hypothesis provided the basis for generating new theory and constructing associated hypothesis. Glaser and Strauss put forth the idea that generating a theory from data means that hypothesis and concepts come from data and are systematically worked out in relation to the data during the process of research. Theory is a process and generated during the course of a study. In grounded theory research, data interpretations are seldom conclusive and the research process is seldom finished. The respondents felt that alliances and networks had not really aided their career aspirations. However, the respondents did report having depended on male mentors in the pursuance and attainment of their positions. Because womens’ networks and their impact on the careers of in-place administrators is such a new concept, a relatively unresearched topic, many questions are left unanswered and future studies could further examine the phenomena of womens’ networks. Based on this study women would be advised to develop a mentor relationship or form an alliance with a male network. / Ed. D.

The purpose of this study was to discover how ethnicity, gender, and mentoring influenced the career experiences of Jamaican administrators in Sunshine County Public Schools (SCPS), a pseudonym that was used for a large public school district in Florida. This qualitative, phenomenological study focused on the career experiences of eight Jamaican administrators in SCPS. Seven of the participants were all native-born Jamaicans and one was a first generation Jamaican, born in England to Jamaican parents and raised in Jamaica until the age of 14. The researcher gained this understanding by interviewing participants in-depth about how their Jamaican ethnicity, gender, and personal mentoring experiences impacted their personal and professional journey as administrators in SCPS. Findings and conclusions will inform mentoring and educational leadership literature on strategies for success geared toward this understudied population. / by Denise P. Barrett-Johnson. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

The major purpose of this descriptive study was to determine common characteristics and influences among women who were serving as public school superintendents of independent districts in Texas during the 1988-89 school year. Commonalities were determined in (1) personal characteristics, (2) personality traits, and (3) perceived barriers to career mobility. A seventy-item survey was developed, validated, and mailed to the thirty-three women superintendents in Texas. Data from the survey were analyzed to determine if commonalities existed among women superintendents. Based on the findings of this study, the following conclusions seem justified: (1) Commonalities in personal characteristics which exist among women superintendents include age, ethnicity, marital status, parenthood, positive attitudes toward being both mothers and superintendents, preference for husbands in the field of education, demonstration of early leadership traits, and self-perceptions of being assertive and risk-taking; (2) Most women superintendents share common views on subjective measures concerning their own personalities, and they rated themselves highest in areas which include self-esteem, general daily activity level, independence, job satisfaction, ability to operate under pressure and practicality; and (3) Most women superintendents perceive similar internal and external barriers to their career mobility; a lack of professional network and employers' negative attitudes toward women are the most common external barriers.

This study is designed to determine the degree to which female principals and vice-principals in Texas derive job satisfaction from their work and to identify those factors, both negative and positive, which affect the job satisfaction of these principals and vice-principals. A single questionnaire was used to collect the data for this study. Usable questionnaires were returned by 331 vice-principals and 504 principals. These represented 336 school districts throughout the state. Respondents were compared as to their view of their overall job satisfaction, the importance assigned to intrinsic and extrinsic job facets, their satisfaction with intrinsic and extrinsic job facets, and the differences in facet satisfaction connected with various personal characteristics.